My wife Ann and I married in 1978. We have two college-aged children. Both are students here at Belmont, where Russ sings in the opera and Maggie plays volleyball. Ann and I enjoy music, golf, travel, long walks with our dog, and watching Green Bay Packer football games and Kentucky Wildcat basketball games.
My interest in entrepreneurship came early in life. I grew-up with entrepreneurship and small business as topics around the dinner table at night. My family was involved in many ventures. My father left a career in corporate America to pursue an entrepreneurial career in the mid-1970s. Today my father is an active, octogenarian entrepreneur. I was fortunate to be able to be involved in many of my father's entrepreneurial endeavors from an early age. That is where I caught the entrepreneurial bug.
Here at Belmont, I am the inaugural Jack C. Massey Chair in Entrepreneurship. Previously, I was the Sandra Schulze Chair in Entrepreneurship at the University of St. Thomas in St. Paul, Minnesota and was on the faculty at the University of Wisconsin-Oshkosh and the University of Kentucky. I have a Doctorate in Business Administration and an MBA from the University of Kentucky, and received my undergraduate degree from the University of Wisconsin-Stevens Point.
In the late 1980's, I felt the entrepreneurial calling in life and left academics to become the Co-founder and President/CEO of Atlantic Behavioral Health Systems, headquartered in Raleigh, NC. Our company operated a variety of health care facilities and programs and employed over 300 people. After nine years of rapid growth, we negotiating the sale of most of our corporations' business interests, and I returned to academics.
I consult with a variety of businesses on start-up and growth related issues. I also consult with larger corporations on re-establishing entrepreneurial cultures within their organizations.
My current research and teaching interests include entrepreneurial finance and entrepreneurial ethics. I authored or co-authored four books: Organizational Entrepreneurship, Entrepreneurial Financial Management, The Entrepreneurial Educator, and From the Ground Up: Entrepreneurial School Leadership.
My resume is here.
